29/30 July 1943 The Battle of Hamburg continued with 777 aircraft - 340 Lancasters, 244 Halifaxes, 119 Stirlings, 70 Wellingtons, 4 Mosquitos being despatached. The marking for this raid was again all by H2S. The intention was to approach Hamburg from almost due north and bomb those northern and north-eastern districts which had so far not been bombed. The Pathfinders actually came in more than 2 miles too far to the east and marked an area just south of the devastated firestorm area. The Main Force bombing crept back about 4 miles, through the devastated area, but then produced very heavy bombing in the Wandsbek and Barmbek districts and parts of the Uhlenhorst and Winterhude districts. These were all residential areas. There was a widespread fire area - though no firestorm - which the exhausted Hamburg fire units could do little to check. 28 aircraft - 11 Halifaxes, 11 Lancasters, 4 Stirlings, 2 Wellingtons - lost, 3.6 per cent of the force. 4 Mosquitos to Düsseldorf, 6 Wellingtons minelaying in the River Elbe, 9 Lancasters of 617 Squadron dropping leaflets over Italian cities, 3 OTU sorties. No aircraft lost.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:00:01 +0000